Chasing Satiation

There was once a time, really long ago, where a blackberry and an apple were still recognized as fruits. Not gadget companies. There was also that time when people didn't judge you by what you wore and what phone you had. There was also that blissful time when Abercrombie, Aero and Armani didn't exist. But that time is over. Gone. Finished. Now, people do judge you by what you wear and what phone you have. But that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Not when you have other things to keep your rep up. And that's what really matters. Yes, having a blackberry may make you feel on top of the world for a week but can you compare that to the feeling when after 3 months of working hard, getting up in the morning and running you get the gold medal in a marathon and you hear from your friends that they are proud of you and they are happy for you? You're never going to get that if you wear a skimpy dress from DKNY. And that pride is better than "whatta hottie!". Yes, watching everyone around you getting a BlackBerry can be hard, every second poster being of a Curve or a Torch can make you look down at your Nokia and say what the hell but if you bother for just one second to look outside the shiny and tempting walls of that phone then you'll see that the world has more problems than a PDA. If you help an old man just by keeping the elevator door open for him then you can change lives in just the smallest of ways and that's really what's going to keep you satisfied. I haven't experienced that level of fulfillment yet, but I'm on my way. Hope it helps; I have my fingers crossed.

Chasing Excellence

Every once in a while, you come across a person who seems to be perfect. In every front. Academically, sportswise,socially and ethically. Everyone wants to be like them. Become the person who everyone loves. But what makes those admired people perfect? They'd probably attribute it to their "parents, teachers and friends" like modest likeable souls but I think its more than that. Parents, teachers and freinds can only inspire you. The excellence you achieve is all because of what you do. The hardwork you put in, the etiquette you observe, the brilliance you work towards bringing out. So you might say that your parents, teachers and friends are responsible for your excellence but the truth is, that its all you. Because if it was really them, you would be mediocre. To some people, excellence is defined by prizes and awards. But sometimes you just get those because someone out there loves you, and doesn't want you to be embarrased. Does that mean that your excellent? No, it doesn't. Just clarifying for the people who think it does. So then what really is excellence? That's actually a question that is difficult to understand and answer. Through visualization I think that everyone I know will answer this question differently. Here and there people will have the same answers but the majority will be different. I think that excellence is who you are, not who you have to be. I think that having the ability to work for what you think is correct despite the cynical and unwilling world which tries to force you to do otherwise is excellence. No one says it better than Aristotle,"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence therefore, is not an act but a habit."

Chasing God

I remember that as a child, my parents weren't really all that religious. Hints of that were given to me when I noticed that my mother didn't do karvachauth like other mothers or they didn't have havans or pujas as often as my other friends. But they did believe in God. They believed that he was there within all of us, and he always would be. Therefore, I was familiar with the basic sanskrit shlokas and was taught that whenever I needed him, he would always be there. But then, as I grew older, I started questioning the existence of this supposed supernatural being. Really, who was he? How was everyone so sure that he was there? Scientifically its impossible that heaven even exists. More over, when I did pray to him, nothing special happened. However, other people believe that he is there. Latest reports prove that even science has now got no other explantion for the happening of the big bang except that some celestial being out there helped it happen. This theory thus gave birth to the "God Particle". Then other people see God in other ways. He is in control of the world and everything that happens in it. And the expediant given for the bad and unfortunate things that happen is that he is teaching us a lesson. God may be the answer to everyone's worries. It would be so easy just to put all your problems in one person's lap, knowing that no matter how many you load on him he will take the weight without complaint or discomfort. But I believe differently. I believe that it is a matter of opinion whether he is there or not. With all due respect I don't feel any different or purer when I enter a holy place. The atmosphere doesn't swallow me up or calm me. It could be because I'm somewhat of an amateur rebel and don't want to be calm. But all the same I don't revel in the glory of his supposed presence in a gurudwara or temple.
But this is about belief. And I can't change anyone else's; I don't want to either.

Money Tree

Money is a big issue in this world. This realisation had dawned on me around the time when I was 11 years old, when the influence of brands and boys came into being. Large stocks of dresses, shirts and skirts were bought every year from the exclusive stores of Zara, Abercrombie and Hollister in London, Hong Kong and the States. By the time we reached thirteen, Armani belts, shirts and even dresses were being flaunted by various nepotistic kids of our grade. But the real question that should be asked is whether they really know the value of the apparel they don so frivolously, and everyday at that. Growing up in a world where everything comes to us at the click of fingers, money has never really been an issue that crosses our minds often. The highest order of problems that we can have are around the concepts of popularity, acceptability, friends, and studies. It is only the children who actually go through some level of a comparatively tough life that actually understand what happens when the only thing that could go wrong in your life is not that you don't feel like every single person loves you every minute of every day. It's often that people say that money is not the most important thing in the world. That, strictly speaking, is not entirely true. Yes, maybe there are other things that one might come up with to overshadow money, but then you can look at it in this way: If money's eternal nemesis is supposedly happiness, then just like two people who have a love and hate relationship; they are the same. These two are fine without each other; they can survive, however they are at their best when they are around the other. Both can function, but they depend on each other's presence for the best outcome.
Money is often said to be man's greatest yet deadliest creation. Holding true to it's word, it can either make a man noteworthy or narcissistic. It's often that people say that a man's greatness should not be measured by his wealth but by his merit. Hearing it, it all sounds very deep, but in reality, it's just another idealistic statement. For in our world, a man's worth is more often than not, actually measured by his wealth. Non-controversially speaking again, the pronounced statement above has been generalized. In the end of the day, money is really a notable part of your life and is definitely creditable for playing a major role in moulding and shaping it into what it is today.

A Riddle to Remember

I've written a lot of reviews on movies and books and frankly I think that maybe review writing is my strongest point in English. But there's one kind of review that I've never written and I've been wanting to, for some time now. Let's play a game of charades. You are the guesser, and I'm the actor. Your aim? Guess what this review is about.
A little girl entered her kinder garden class with a smile on her face reminiscent to that of her grandmother and watched as her to- be classmates held on to their parents' hands with small fingers begging them through their tears not to let go. Her parents were proud of their little sweetheart, the brave child who was guaranteed to be a brilliant girl whe she grew up. Three years later her academic reports indicated that she was a promising girl with only two drawbacks ; she wouldn't stop talking and she wasn't living up to her full potential. Acknowledging the fact, yet partially ignoring it, her parents began to look for the girl's strengths and began working on those. She did well in the next two years, a popular little girl with friends, decent marks, a proficiency certificate in English and a budding reputation as a brilliant actress. But maybe that got to her head, and her living dream shattered. With competitive rivals challenging her on the theatre front, and her academic grades going down she realised that she was going to have to work to get it back, a thought which she throughly despised. She had lived her entire life thinking that everything in it was for granted. But as money and attitude came into being, she understood that it wasn't. Her parents had worked hard for their money and even though they had earned a lot, it just wasn't enough to compete with her nepotistic classmates. Then came her first teenage year, a year where everything should be meticulous and systematically planned. A new chapter in life where everything calls for desperate measures. And it did. A new fight broke out everyday. She started trusting her friends more than her parents. Her values and ethical niceties crashed and fell to the ground around her. She never felt the need to tell her parents anything as she had a mere three years back. She became an amateur rebel and although she knew that whatever her parents did was for her own good, she didn't truly believe in any of it. Everyday she heard the same thing, she was tired of it all but she knew that she wouldn't be able to get them to understand, for everytime she tried she would start crying and as if like a chain reaction so would her mother. How could she put into words that she needed to feel wanted within the social circle, she needed to feel wanted, without making it sound dumb and superficial? But one day then she realised that talking to somebody abouit it helped. Anybody. Something she hadn't believed had helped her. Helped her become free, letting her fly and enjoy herself for the first time in what had seemed like forever. She looked around her, loving everyone twice as much as she had before.

Answer to the posed question above : Life